No Place Like Home
by badriddance
Summary: The Watchmen in Oz, written for a kinkmeme prompt. Laurie wakes up in Oz with no memory of how she got there, but the farther she goes down the yellow brick road, the more familiar things start to seem.
1. Chapter 1

Yellow. Again.

It reminded her of her mother, of the life she didn't want, the path she didn't want to take, and here it was again, an actual path, pressed under cheek, leading off into the distance. Yellow bricks. Like it had been specially designed just for her whether she wanted it or not. Like most of the bright things in her life.

She picked herself up, feeling bruised, but there weren't any marks on her. She wasn't sure of anything at the moment, not where she was or how she had gotten there, or what had happened to put here there. All she really felt was an insistent urge to get back. Somewhere, there was something or someone that she needed to get back to.

She was in what had been a city. It had been brightly colored once, with lots of windows. The only indication of that now were the uncharred pieces of rubble and all the broken glass. There were the remains of gardens, bits of color here and there in the debris. Something horrific had happened here, some flower of destruction blooming among its gentler counterparts. She wandered, considering calling out for anyone.

Twice she saw a shadow, small and quick, and she did call out then. Whoever it was didn't answer, but did seem to be following. She decided to let whatever survivor it was approach at their own speed. She could see a faint light farther into what seemed to be ground zero and headed towards that.

It was a man. Inside a bubble. He was curled into a posture of utter despair, hands over his face so that all she could see was his very blond hair. The light seemed to be coming from the bubble.

"Hello?" she said and his head shot up. He had been crying, but snapped out of it press his hands against his side of the bubble.

"Are you a witch?" he asked. He would've been handsome if he hadn't been such a mess.

"Um, no." She wasn't sure if she should be offended or not. He nodded, both relieved and disappointed. "Why?"

"I'm trapped," he said, tapping the bubble. "I-I wanted to protect them, all of them. Made it strong enough to withstand the devastation, but, but they didn't believe me! They wouldn't come in with me! And now, look!" His voice broke. "I could only save myself and now I'm trapped. I made it too strong to escape from on my own, and now, there's no one to help me!"

"Maybe that's what knocked me here," she said. It triggered half a memory of something similar that was happening, maybe had happened, somewhere else. "I have to find my way home. Am I anywhere near New York?"

"Not in this world," he said. She nodded, frustrated, but unsurprised.

"What happened here?" she asked. She circled the bubble, more to make a show of helping than she had actual hope of getting him out.

"The Wizard sent something," he said. "It was supposed to save us from war. He said so. But- but- something went wrong. It destroyed us instead of the enemy. We don't even know why."

"I'll tell you why," said a new voice. Laurie turned to see a small man crouching just out of reach. "Survival of the fittest. The age of heroes has passed. They filled their niche for awhile, but the world changed and they didn't. No fighting evolution. Obsolete and extinct."

"Don't listen," the blond man begged. "Go to the Wizard in the Sapphire City. He's the only one powerful enough to send you elsewhere, and take him a message from us. Tell him we beg for his help, to know why…"

"I can't promise…" she began. He froze as a sound like the crack of a whip came from the distance.

"She's coming," he whispered. "Run now. Down the road. Quickly and quietly. Save yourself. Save us."

"Neither of those is going to happen," snarled the small man. "You can't outrun her. The sun may rise every morning, but the night follows just as inevitably. You can't escape her any more than you can escape the darkness."

"Some of us," the blond man said, strength and conviction changing his voice and his demeanor. "Learn to light candles."

The small man snorted and lunged at Laurie. He had a shiv she realized, made from wreckage as if there were no such things as weapons in the pastel city before this. His shadow was cast out on either side of him by the light of the bubble, making it look like he was flanked by a giant on either side.

"Run!" the blond man shouted. His bubble expanded instantly, and the small man slammed straight into it. With a grunt of exertion, the blond man expanded it even farther to pin him against a wall. "Follow the road! Go!"

With no better plan, she did, heels clicking on the brick, until the ground was green again and the only smell of burning was what clung to her clothes.

__

A/N: Big Figure as a munchkin spy and Captain Metropolis as the stuffy good witch was requested in the prompt.


	2. Chapter 2

She walked on. All was green and gold here, beautiful, like an eternal August, even though some part of her mind thought it should be cold and dark. November? Maybe. She had to stop when the road forked. Which way now? She looked around for a sign and did see a pole with a glove nailed to it, one finger pointing to the left. She stepped closer to squint for any kind of faded writing, any kind of clue.

Something rustled and she jumped. Cornfields were full of rustles, but that one had seemed deliberate. She looked around, eyes straining for a furtive shape behind all the rows. There was a loud caw that made her turn again and she barely ducked before a blackbird went straight for her eyes. It screamed again and the sound of its wings was deafening. She threw her arms up to shield her face and felt the beak stab at them, scrabbling claws tearing at her hair. She backed away, shouting and slapping. Her back collided with the pole.

There was a whirr of motion and the cawing stopped. She opened her eyes in time to see a gloved hand snap the crow's neck and drop it. She lowered her arms and found herself facing a scarecrow. He wasn't as tall as her, and was dressed in what had probably been someone's best suit a generation ago. He tilted his head to look up at her from under his hat's brim. His face had been splashed on his burlap head with black paint that bled and morphed to make his expressions. He looked uncertain and maybe a little embarrassed.

It felt familiar to have the shifting face looking into hers. She was trying to think of where she had seen him before, if she _had_ seen him before, when she noticed he was missing a hand.

"Is that yours?" she asked, pointing up at the glove nailed to the post. He nodded. She reached up and worked it free for him. The nail left a hole in the palm, like a bullet hole, which gave her another jolt of déjà vu.

"Do you know the way to the Sapphire City?" she asked, as he worked the glove back onto his wrist. He paused, expression trickling into concentration.

"Don't remember," he finally said, voice as rough as the burlap. "Don't remember much."

"I know how that is," she sighed, running a hand through her hair.

"Witch stole yours too?" he seemed surprised. "Not just me?"

"Stole what? My memories?" He nodded. "I don't think so. I think I got hit on the head."

"Head gets hit all the time," he said, pushing a fist into his head so that it caved in with a squish sound. "Never forgot before."

"Who hits you?"

"People from the city."

"What city?" He pointed again to the left fork. She wondered if he had been lying about not remembering, but then decided that maybe he didn't remember the whole picture, just pieces.

"That's where I'll go then," she decided. He looked sad, but nodded, turning his hat in his hands. "You can come," she offered. "Keep the blackbirds away." He looked up, startled, then looked out over the cornfield that would be left without a guardian.

"They like pretty things," he mumbled. "Could come after you again."

"And maybe the Wizard knows which witch took your memories," she said. She didn't know why she was encouraging him, but it was nice to have something that was even sort of familiar with her. Even if it was a lanky, living scarecrow in outdated clothes. That seemed to convince him. He clambered clumsily over the fence and fell into a lopsided walk beside her.

Their conversation was a strange one, neither having much of a past to talk about. He had heard the bad thing that had happened to the town far away, and hadn't seen anyone since, but had no idea what it was. The walked on and on, finally stopping to rest in an orchard. Scarecrow didn't seem to need rest or food, but after letting her feet relax a little while, Laurie went looking for apples. Scarecrow leapt to help as soon as he saw what she was doing, collecting a hatful to offer her.

She opened her mouth to thank him and then cried a warning. His face paint went bug-eyed as she grabbed his lapels and yanked him to her chest to get him out of the way of the axe poised over him. It never came down.

"Enk," Scarecrow said, twisting to look over his own shoulder at whoever it was. There was figure there, like a cast iron cyborg. It was frozen in place, axe locked in mid-arc. It was armored and had empty black eyes and a deep scratch in the metal of its face. "Struck by lightning, fused joints?"

"Maybe," Laurie said, standing up to peer closer. A low growl came out of it. Was every humanoid construct in this place alive? The jointed fingers shifted on the axe handle, but couldn't release. "Think it's safe to unfreeze him?"

Scarecrow wrestled with that for a moment. This question seemed to bother him more than the other ones. Maybe the concept of _safe_ was giving him trouble. Laurie sighed and started scraping at the rust around the thing's mouth. There was only way to find out.

Heat and friction finally got the Metal Man's mouth moving. He swore, long and colorfully, making Scarecrow bristle.

"No way to talk in front of a lady," he rasped. The Metal Man laughed, a hollow, mean sound.

"No lady dresses like that," he sneered. Scarecrow faltered, looking at Laurie's latex costume more carefully.

"Like what?" he asked her. She was already walking away.

"He's being an ass," she said. "Let him see if insults work on the crud in the rest of his joints. Let's go."

"Wait," the Metal Man said. "I can make nice when it's to my advantage. Come back." He didn't sound contrite at all, but Laurie looked over her shoulder at him. "I'm a soldier of the Sapphire City. I heard you talking about it in the trees. Get me moving and I'll take you there through the shortcut."

"How did you get stuck?"

"The way I get in all my trouble." His voice was amused again. "A woman."

"Were you going to axe her?" Laurie asked, hands on her hips. This reminded her of something ugly, like a childhood nightmare.

"She had it coming."

"If you think I'll give you the chance to come after _me_ with that thing-"

"She stole my heart," he snapped. "I gave it away in the old days, when it mattered. She killed my girl and stole it for herself. I don't need a heart without… her... but I would've split that bitch's skull all the way to her own black heart if she hadn't stopped me."

"Lost his heart," Scarecrow said. "Lost my mind. Lost your way. Trapped and lost, all of us."

So Laurie gave in. It took them the rest of the day to get the soldier's joints cleared. The sun was setting, but he shouldered his axe and started walking at once.

"Fall in, kiddos," he said. "Shortcut's this way."

He lead them through the cultivated orderly trees into much wilder territory. The sun had set, and weak moonlight filtered through the trees. The road was pale now. The only yellow was in the occasional flicker of eyes in the underbrush around them. Laurie was exhausted. Her companions weren't of flesh and blood and went on without complaint. She finally had to stop.

"I need a little while, guys," she said.

"Can carry you," Scarecrow offered. Metal Man didn't.

"Just let me rest." She was already settling down under a tree. "Just a little while." The Metal Man swore again, but Scarecrow hurried to squeeze in behind her like a big pillow. She rested back on him with a smile and thanked him, getting another disgusted sound from the soldier. Maybe he didn't want to be still after being frozen so long. Maybe he would leave them stranded in the wilderness rather than wait. She was too tired to care.

She looked at the tree above them and saw two yellow moons looking back. They blinked, or maybe it was her own heavy eyes, but she was asleep before she could think about it.


	3. Chapter 3

She awoke to a tight squeeze around her. Scarecrow was clutching her with arms and legs, trying to pull her into himself, away from-what? Her eyes opened all the way and saw her own reflection in the yellow lens of two massive eyes.

"Trespassers," a voice snarled. Did she know the voice? It struck her that it shouldn't have been so menacing.

"Sapphire soldiers go where they're sent," the Metal Man was saying shakily. Laurie saw him struggling against a huge paw. "All roads belong to the Wizard."

"In the Sapphire City, perhaps," the creature rumbled. In the darkness, in the constant shift of moonlight and dark, she had no idea what it was. "But here and now, it belongs to me. The _night_ belongs to me."

"Liar," the Scarecrow said as if he had suddenly remembered the word. Did the thing flinch? "Leave us alone."

"Leave my woods," it hissed back. "This place is mine." A deep, metallic laugh rattled out of the Metal Man.

"Talk is cheap," he chuckled. "If you were really a monster, you'd've killed us already." The creature shuddered and tensed. Its eyes squeezed shut for a moment longer than a blink. What was it steeling itself for? Its claws came to rest on Laurie's throat.

"No!" whispered the Scarecrow. He tried to get his arms between the claws and her skin, and there was the creak of metal joints.

The Metal Man was moving, much more quickly than should've been possible for something his size and weight. The axe was swinging and the animal leaped upwards to dodge, flinging out wings longer that Laurie's whole body. The yellow eyes, the moonlit claws, the piecing scream that made the Scarecrow clutch her tighter, was it a bird? Some gigantic owl? No. Not with paws wider than her whole head and a body big around as an armchair. Not with a tufted tail lashing across her legs as it went airborne. A Griffin.

Without thinking, Laurie grabbed the tail and yanked back with all her strength. She crushed Scarecrow back against the tree, his boneless arms bulging as stuffing from his torso was forced into them. He quickly adapted to help her hold on. The Griffin screeched like a bird from Hell, pulled out of its lunge. It dodged the axe anyway, turning back on itself to snap at Laurie. Its beak missed by a mile, but she released the tail to grab its eyelids. It squawked, but froze. The flesh was smooth and very warm. Her voice was not.

"You like the dark so much," she said. "You'll enjoy being blind."

"Stop!" The Griffin wailed. "Don't hurt me!"

"That's right," the Metal Man said, raising the axe. "Just keep it still and fur coats for everybody."

"NO!!" The Griffin screamed. "Please, no!" Tears leaked out over her hands, shocking her, but not enough to make her let go. The Metal Man had stopped and was peering closer at the Griffin's back.

"Somebody has already done a number on you," he said. "Whole back is nothing but scars. Looks almost like..." The Griffin was shaking with sobs. Laurie and Scarecrow traded looks, then she let go. It plunked down on its haunches, shaking like a very big leaf and weeping brokenly.

"Those are whip marks," Metal Man growled. "What else did she do to you?"

"Nice at first," Griffin snivelled. "But then... then she-"

"What did she take?" Scarecrow asked. "She always takes something."

"Took his damn spine, the big pussy," Metal Man sneered.

"Griffin," it said, still sniffling.

"Griffins don't cry like bullied schoolgirls over having their tails pulled. Whatever you are, you're no monster."

"Who are you talking about?" Laurie asked.

"The Western Witch," said the Metal Man. "Some call her the Twilight Witch because the West is where the sun goes down. Uses a whip. Took my heart. Took the hay you're rolling in's mind, and from the looks of it, beat all the spine out of this crybaby." He aimed a kick at the Griffin, who took it with only a cringe, like a too-often beaten dog.

"Don't," Laurie said in spite of herself. "He didn't hurt us."

"Tried to," grumbled Scarecrow.

"Wanted to scare you away," the Griffin said. "Most run when they see me and I don't have to fight."

"What are you guarding?"

"My home. My nest. All I have left is a place to hide."

"We're just passing through to the Sapphire City," Laurie said. "We wouldn't have bothered you at all." The Griffin cringed even farther, ashamed.

"You come too?" Scarecrow asked. "Ask Wizard to fix your back?"

"What?" The Griffin was comical in its astonishment. Then, it wilted again. "Don't want anyone to see me. Not in daylight."

"We won't tell them," Laurie said. "Just keep pretending you're a monster until we get there."

"Great," the Metal Man spat. "And overgrown lap pet makes three."

"Should be four, counting you," Scarecrow said, after a moment.

"DON'T count me," he growled and started down the road. "Shake a leg, mistakes, there's ground to cover."

Laurie jerked. She had no idea why being called a mistake sent such a jolt of pain through her. The Metal Man glanced over her shoulder and caught her eye. Whatever he saw there made him look away quickly. She sighed and stood up, helping Scarecrow to his feet. The Griffin was watching them silently now.

"You really can come if you want," she said. They started after the Metal Man and it was only a moment before they heard the barely there padded click of paws and claws on the road behind them.


	4. Chapter 4

By morning, they could see the azure towers of the Sapphire City. It was beautiful, lit by the rising sun. The whole thing looked like it was made of blown glass, nestled into a field of red flowers. Metal Man went clunking on toward it, apparently unmoved. Scarecrow had lent his hat to Griffin when the daylight hurt the yellow eyes. It looked ridiculous, but it helped, and Laurie fought back a giggle as the Griffin thanked him.

As they got closer to the towers, Scarecrow made a strange little noise and clung to Griffin's side, surprising the creature.

"What's wrong?" it asked. Scarecrow shrugged.

"Have you been here before?" Griffin asked.

"Don't remember," he said. "Feels weird though."

"I didn't think I would ever come here either," Griffin sighed. "Especially not like this." Red pollen from all the flowers rose as they went by.

Metal Man went striding to the door as if he owned it, and barked some sort of password to the doorkeeper who tried to argue until he found himself reflected in the blade of an axe. The door opened.

Inside was a riot of mildly happy people falling over themselves to be helpful. They rushed the newcomers at first sight, expounding on what they all needed done.

"You poor dear, you've come so far," cooed a matronly woman to Laurie.

"We're here to see the Wizard," Laurie answered.

"Of course! Why else would you have come such a long, treacherous way? Let's just get you prettied up. It's not like asking a favor of the boy next door, you know."

"Well-"

"We'll just put up your lovely hair and get that little mark removed and find you some more appropriate shoes-"

"A soldier of the realm in such a terrible state, poor hero, we'll have you shined up in not time."

"Think what a handsome beast you'd be with your coat all brushed and your feathers oiled. We'll just trim some of the stray ones…"

"You poor clothes are in such a state. Let's just find you something else and-"

"No."

In the whirlwind of distractions and offered comforts, Scarecrow's rough voice caught and pulled at everyone's ears like sandpaper over silk stockings. They all stopped and looked at him. The tailor just looked dumbfounded, still holding out a silk tuxedo the same blue was the walls.

"But you'd look so much nicer-"

"Fine like this. Fine with face marks," he said to Laurie. She touched her mole with a start. "Fine with wings not clipped," he said to the Griffin which flinched away from the scissors when it realized where they were.

"I suppose you think I'm fine rusted solid," drawled the Metal Man from a buffing contraption that looked a little obscene.

"Said not to count you," Scarecrow said. "Wasn't. Got us here. Job's over." The metal soldier didn't answer that and the Griffin suddenly fluttered in alarm.

"What IS that??" it squealed and a cat about half his size came weaving through the crowd. It was a rusty red, with long tufted ears and too-intelligent eyes. As they watched, its coat faded to an unlikely purple.

"The Cat of a Different Color," the crowd whispered. "It will take you to the Wizard." The crowd parted for the cat, so Laurie followed, and her companions fell into step behind her. Even the Metal Man.

"Should be good for a laugh," he grumbled. They ignored him.

The Wizard's hall crackled with blue lights and magic. His spectral face manifested out of the smoke and lightning, cleanly handsome, glowing blue like his city. Laurie was more impressed than afraid and marched up to tell him everything. The giant entity claimed the devastation of the distant city was for the greater good. Everything was fine. The Scarecrow knew enough to not be sidetracked, smarter than most of the City residents. The Metal Man could accomplish plenty without a heart to complicate matters. Soldiers couldn't afford distractions after all. The Griffin protected his woods perfectly well by just pretending to be brave. All this came as emotionlessly as announcing the time from the floating Wizard.

"That still leaves Laurie," Scarecrow said. The Wizard made a slow blink.

"The Twilight Witch took her way home," he said. "Twisted it into a new whip. Bring me the whip and I will unravel your path from it."


	5. Chapter 5

"Don't seem upset." Scarecrow said to Laurie. They walked along the road again, away from the Sapphire City.

"I'm used to not getting what I want until I jump through hoops." She had been thinking about the Wizard. He had been very handsome.

"Shouldn't have to do that." Scarecrow grumbled. "All say how great and powerful he is. Shouldn't need you to fetch for him. Should've helped you just because it's right."

"Everything has a price," she told him, pleased to have someone take her side so completely.

"Like your life?" The Metal Man sneered. He had gotten himself polished after all, gleaming a gunmetal blue, and followed them without explanation. "The bossman is sending you off to get rid of you. He doesn't expect you to come back. Just to die."

"What?" Griffin looked horrified. "He wouldn't do that! Why would he do that??"

"Won't let him," Scarecrow said, voice going even coarser. "Help you. Can't say no if you bring whip back."

"…But what if he does?" Griffin asked, unnerved now. He had been lied to before. "What if he just sends you on something even worse??"

"What will you do if he does?" chuckled the Metal Man. "You can't fight him."

That thought left them all quiet as they made their way into a dark wood. There were signs everywhere. One declared the forest haunted, one said that the end was nigh. One advised them to turn back. One declared the witch's castle was only a mile away, and one asked who was watching. Griffin had started to shake.

"I haven't been this close to her since I got away," he said. "M-maybe we should try another way. She'll know we're coming this way. She'll see us and be ready! Maybe she already knows! L-let's go back! Go around!"

"Not facing her alone this time," Scarecrow reminded him. Griffin looked at him hopelessly. The lumpy gloves stroked his wing almost shyly. "Can fly. Strong. Can carry us away if you have to. Save us."

"Can't carry me," Metal Man grumbled.

"Hadn't considered it," Scarecrow said. "Not really with us." The soldier swore again, but under his breath, not willing to argue that he was. That's when the attack came.

They were like dogs, like winged German shepherds, but with bright yellow faces (there it was again, Laurie thought) twisted into fiendish smiles. The bright color was spattered with blood, as if they had fought among themselves before attacking. They swarmed over Griffin, biting and snarling. Scarecrow had two to each limb tearing him apart and no matter how many heads he split with his axe, even the Metal Man was overrun.

Just as quickly as it had begun, the attack was over. The dogs pulled back and took to the air again.

"They have Laurie!" wailed the Griffin. He jumped to fly after, but his bitten, savaged wings wouldn't hold him and he collapsed. "I knew this was a bad idea, I just knew it!"

"Hngh. Find legs," Scarecrow growled. "Can't follow on foot with no feet."

"Why would the Twilight Witch want her?" Griffin fretted, as he ran around scooping up the torn pieces.

"Obsessive," grunted the Metal Man, prying some broken off teeth out of his arm.

"But why her?" Griffin insisted.

"Some connection we aren't seeing," Scarecrow said, fumbling in a breast pocket for a spool of thread and a needle to sew himself back together.

"Nothing connects, halfwits," Metal Man argued. "We're alone in this world, alone in our own little shells."

"Everything connects!" Griffin flared. He drew himself up to his full height, which was impressive. "Without one organ the whole body dies. Without our missing pieces we're just lonely freaks, and without Laurie we'll never be anything else!" He shivered and swallowed. "I'm going."

"Grow up. Even the mattress here is smart enough to walk away from this."

"No." Scarecrow's conviction silenced them both as it had the whole square in the city. He looked at the soldier ominously from under his hat. "I'm not." He put his hand on Griffin's shoulder and he leaned against it gratefully. They started walking, leaving the Metal Man to watch them go, feeling something he was going to call anger.


	6. Chapter 6

The dogs dumped Laurie out on the slippery floor. They had been careful with her, even while she had punched and pummeled them, but she still had a few bites from where her thrashing had dragged her skin against their teeth. They were glad to spit her out and back away, and she managed to land a kick on the slowest one that made it squeal. Laurie got to her feet and felt her heels sink a little in the floor. It was covered in something as slick as latex. So were the walls. It was a little gross.

She heard the sound of other heels on a much firmer floor and the crack of leather against a glove. A door-shaped window of light fell onto the floor and she looked up to see a curvaceous silhouette there.

"Hello, princess." It was a woman's voice, thankfully, supremely confident and dripping with satisfaction. "I should thank you. Pursuit is always a pleasure, and it's a merry chase you have led me."

"It was you I heard in the ruined city," Laurie said, unimpressed. "That the little man told me about."

"Oh, don't let him hear you call him that," the witch chuckled. "That was his reward for fetching you to me, you know. To be made big. He didn't quite manage it, so I'm not quite giving it to him."

Laurie had a brief vision, a thought overlaying hers, of the small man being stretched like taffy on a machine. His bright intestines were wound out and around in spirals, like one of those too-big, too-bright lollipops someone had brought her from the fair when she was a child. She flinched, and it was gone, but when she looked up, the witch was right in front of her. She looked young in a stretched tight way, like a painting in layers, bird-bright eyes surrounded by a black mask, surrounded by a doll-smooth white face, surrounded by a elaborately-piled red hair.

"What do you want me for?" she asked, looking her in the eye.

"You came here looking for me," the witch reminded her, running the end of the whip handle down her arm. Unease rippled through Laurie at the touch, even though the whip was why she had come in the first place.

"Is that what you used on the Griffin? Why did you hurt him?" she asked, refusing to step away. "He obviously loved you,"

""Of course," the witch said. "Every one does. Should I let them all come crawling about like maggots looking for a way in? No. Only the worthy. He was not. I had high hopes, I admit," she said, waving a hand to forestall Laurie's angry reply. "I wanted a creature of darkness, a worthy consort, and he seemed to fit the part, but he lacked a spine. Too soft and merciful, too willing to let offense go unpunished. I tried to beat some fire into him, make him angry, get his blood hot, wake up some animal inside the beast, but no. He ran and hid in disgrace, as well he should have."

"If everyone loves you, why did you have to steal the Metal Man's heart?" Laurie asked, feeling a little sick. The whip was moving on its own, twining around her legs like an affectionate snake.

"Is that what he told you?" the witch laughed. "I didn't steal it, princess, I stole it _back_. It was meant for me, but that golden trollop took it first. While it was in her little hands, he was under her spell. I punish thieves quite severely, little dear, as the Wizard should've told you."

"You're insane!" Laurie snapped. "You killed her and ruined him because you were jealous??"

"Jealous of what? She was no match for me. I was merely putting an errant situation right."

"And what about the Scarecrow? What could he have possibly known that you had take his memories?"

"Whatever that poor bag of weeds knows, it's no interest to me. I did it a favor. You think that thing's your friend? Do you know how many necks its broken? How quickly it would've turned on you if it remembered what it had been like before? I took that away from him, gave a new, gentler purpose."

"You stole his mind and nailed him to a post!"

"Empty and clean for the first time."

"And incomplete!"

"You think he was complete before? A complete maniac, perhaps."

"I don't believe you." Laurie wondered if she was fast enough to fight the witch. Domino masks were fine for protecting identities to a point, but not so good at shielding the eyes. A quick jab, two fingers in, and how dangerous would a blind witch be? "The Wizard says you took my way home."

The Twilight witch's smile went even more predatory.

"Oh princess," she sighed. "Your way came straight to me._ You_ came straight to me. You keep asking what I want with you, but the real question is what you want with me. You came to my world, you came to my home, remember. I didn't seek you out. Oh no." She stepped away with a flick of her wrist that sent the tip of the whip sliding down the inside of Laurie's thigh and walked around her. Laurie turned to keep her in sight.

"I understand desire," the Twilight witch said. "It draws me, like an inebriated moth to a kerosene flame. Whatever it is you do want has your desire fluttering around my head."

"I don't want anything of yours," Laurie said. "Just what you took from me."

"All little girls want to queen when they grow up, princess," the witch purred. "Maybe you don't know it yet, but you do want what I have. My place, and my power, of course you do. We'll find out soon enough. Desire is a combination of heart and mind and nerve, and while it's not as easy to remove as a whole as the separate parts are, there are ways. You'll see."

There was suddenly an hourglass there, as tall as the Scarecrow, and filled with sand, as red and fine as the pollen from the fields outside the Sapphire City. The Twilight witch turned it, and Laurie felt her strength start to drain as quickly as the sand was.


	7. Chapter 7

Left alone again, Laurie panicked at first. She struggled with the hourglass, trying to turn it back, just to stop the draining sensation. She wasn't able to budge it, which frightened her even more after seeing the witch spin it with one hand. She looked at her weak reflection in the glass dome. She could barely recognize herself. What was she becoming?

Did it really matter if she didn't get the whip? She didn't even remember where she was supposed to be from, so why all the urgency to get back to it? Why had she endangered her friends by taking them on this stupid quest? Poor Griffin especially. Had the Twilight witch really rejected him because he wasn't enough of a monster? No wonder the poor thing was such a wreck. She almost wished he was there so she could hug him. His feathers were sleek and warm, she knew, brown fading to gold where they melted into his fur. The scars swirled over his back like jungle cat markings, ridged and rippling in the smoothness. They hadn't made him any less beautiful, she thought.

She had another flash of a memory that wasn't hers. It wasn't as vivid as the one with the little man's guts being spun out like taffy, but more tactile. She could feel Griffin's fur and feathers against her own body, felt suddenly weightless with the forest far below her. The steady pump of his wings on each side of her matched the rhythm inside her. His lion claws gripped the back of her calves, claws jabbing through the boots. The owl talons were gentler, but still drawing blood. The warm slide of his beak across her throat was just a reminder that he could snap her head off, like shears through a flower stem, but he wouldn't. Not to her. Her fingers ran through the feathers and pelt, their bodies straining to fit just a little bit closer with nothing above but the stairs and nothing else to touch them but the wind.

Laurie snapped out of it and realized she had fogged up the surface of the hourglass. Where the hell had _THAT_ come from?? She had been able to feel everything, had been able to smell him. Was that what the witch and the Griffin had been? Lovers, coupling on the wing between the sky and the forest, the two halves of him? It was one of the most bizarre and romantic things she could think of. Her own body was still throbbing from just that glimpse of it. To have had that and then have her turn on him? Poor Griffin. No one deserved that.

She staggered away from the hourglass. It felt too warm now and she leaned against the fabric-covered wall to get a hold of herself. The Metal Man would laugh at her, she thought. Or be angry. She had been in easy striking range of the witch and hadn't gone straight for her throat. Laurie wondered why she cared what the soldier might think. She wondered what he had been like before, what kind of woman his first love had been, that losing her had left such a black hole in him. The witch had wanted him, she realized, wanted him and couldn't have him. Or maybe just the fact that he hadn't been interested had been enough to snap the crazy redhead.

The Twilight Witch had killed that woman, whoever she was, probably in a horrible way, probably left her for the Metal Man to find, like an evil cat with a grudge. Imagining that made Laurie's stomach clench and the lingering heat from the vision twisted into nausea. She was sure, suddenly, hideously sure that the witch had skinned the other woman, stripping her of her beauty and wearing it like another tight leather suit. _Skin deep_, she could've purred.

The Metal Man hadn't been metal then. He had worn armor over a body of flesh and blood, but then he found his flayed beloved, and the armor hadn't kept his heart from breaking.

The witch had come to him then, looking like the dead girl and laughing at him for being so stricken. His mind was in as many pieces as his heart by then. He had reached for her, shaken, torn between terrible relief and even worse certainty. He had looked into her eyes and he had _known_.

He had attacked her, shocking her. Her bones had broken against the edge of a table and her stolen skin was grated off as he ground her face into the surface.

"Isn't this what you wanted?" he had snarled, pulling off his belt. The strap hit her twice before he wound it around his fist and the buckle had laid her jaw open. When it went around her throat, she had finally been afraid enough for her own life to lash out with her power, tearing the heart out of him.

It hadn't been enough. He didn't die. She got away from him that time, and he went back to work with a zeal and lack of self-preservation that whittled his body away piece by piece. His armor had become his new body and he had been waiting in the orchard when she had come to get apples.

Witchcraft needs apples. Everyone knew that. He had been waiting at that one orchard and eventually, as he knew she would, she had come. It taken almost all of her power to stop him from killing her. She had only meant to lock his arms up, stop the killing blow, but he had frightened her again, and she had overdone it. The rage came later. How dare he? How could she possibly be made to feel anything for him, especially fear? He was nothing! He had wasted his chances. She had left him there, telling herself it was because he wasn't worth any more attention and refusing to admit that she barely had enough strength to crawl away from him.

"That _**bitch**_," Laurie hissed alone in the dark. Or so she thought.

"Language," admonished a familiar growl. Scarecrow was squirming through a barred window that she was sure hadn't been there before.

"You're here!" She scrambled to her feet, then stopped. "Wait. Are you here? This isn't going to be something else weird and sexy where I can smell the straw and feel the texture of burlap on my tongue is it?"

He froze in place, half in, half out. His expression bled into three distinct circles, each a different size. (O.o)

"I…" He struggled for words. "Don't… think so?" It was probably one of the most endearing things she had ever seen.

"Just to be sure then," she said, and threw her arms around his neck and kissed him. He made a helplessly embarrassed little noise, and she could actually smell the sunny sweetness of the mown hay he was stuffed with. The burlap tasted pretty much like she had expected, but it quivered under her lips, and unless she was very mistaken, one of his floppy arms had wrapped around her waist.

"Is she there?" Griffin's voice called from outside and below. "Is she all right?"

"Yes!" She pulled free to call out the window. "Oh, I'm so glad to see you!" Even if all she could see was the yellow eyes down in the darkness.

"Hard to sneak out with you two yelling like jays," Scarecrow hissed. "Hush. Meet us at the east tower with the stairs." The yellow eyes nodded and disappeared. Scarecrow took her hand and pulled her away from the window. The dark opened for him, into hallways and staircases where she had only found walls.

"How do you do that?" she said, remembering to whisper.

"Don't know," he mumbled. "Maybe am something she made. Don't want to be!" he added quickly. "Hate her for hurting you and Griffin! But… Don't remember what I was before. Could've been anything. Might be anything again. Maybe can make me do bad things if she wants. Maybe already did and that's why mind is gone. Afraid of that sometimes."

"It was brave of you to come," she whispered. "So brave to know that and risk it anyway."

"But not very smart, you have to admit," drawled the Twilight witch, and the lights came on.


	8. Chapter 8

They were surrounded by the smiling dogs. They looked even more hideous in the light, bright yellow flesh stretched tight and shiny over their dog skulls by whatever had twisted their faces into such hideous caricatures of happiness. In the light, Laurie could see that each and every one of them had a stitched up axe wound to the head. Perhaps the Metal Man had fought this bunch before.

Scarecrow was trying to stay between her and all of them, which he couldn't do by himself. Laurie caught his arm and pulled him close to her side. The Twilight Witch looked at him strangely. Expectantly? What has she done to the Scarecrow that her ego still expected him to remember it with his mind torn out? What if he really was something she had made? Or had he been a human once too, like the Metal Man, that she had ruined so completely that all that was left was a handful of personality in an old suit?

The Twilight Witch raised her whip and the lash went coiling out around the room. Laurie didn't even care that her way home was supposed to wound up in it somehow. When had she ever really been at home, some place she was sure she belonged?

"Forget the Wizard," she whispered into where Scarecrow's ear should be. "First chance, we run."

"But you just got here," The witch pretended to pout and then she struck out, the whip cracking around Laurie's throat. Scarecrow lunged straight at her with roar that shouldn't have been possible from depths of straw. The dogs were on him before his third step. The witch yanked Laurie into arms' reach, one hand outstretched to her face. The remnants of the vision she had had about the Metal Man came back with the sound of ribs breaking against a table. Laurie kicked out hard and felt those same ribs give. The witch's doll-like face wrenched into pain.

There was a tremendous crash of breaking glass and Griffin came leaping in through another window that Laurie was sure hadn't been there. He handed heavily and she saw that his wings were bandaged. He screeched, a high-pitched shriek that made every dog in the place freeze for a moment. His round eyes found Laurie and he charged for the witch, running on all fours. The dogs recovered and tore into him. He screamed again and started ripping them apart. He was using his size and power for once, lion claws and owl talons shredding the dogs into sprays of blood and torn fur.

"How did you do that?" the witch breathed. She was staring in wide-eyed lust at the carnage, barely able to pull her eyes away to look at Laurie. "How did you bring this out of him?"

"I didn't." Laurie threw another kick, this time into the back of the witch's knee, making her stagger. Laurie punched into the same ribs she'd hit before and felt them separate. "He did it FOR me."

The witch's grip falter and Laurie jerked free. She turned to run back to help Scarecrow. She could hear his seams tearing even as the dogs were thrown off and away, some missing wings and jaws. The whip snagged her again, throwing her to the floor and dragging her back.

"No matter," the witch wheezed. It could've been blood or lipstick smeared on her chin. "When I empty you out, I'll have it anyway." She drew her hand back and her nails were more like claws now, reaching and tearing, greedily grasping. Then, there was a blur and a thunk and Laurie fell backwards as the whip and the arm were severed at the same time by an axe. Laurie looked up into the scarred face of the Metal Man.

The axe head was slammed into the witch's throat. Already stunned by her sudden loss of limb, she wheezed and her remaining hand clawed at it, cutting her fingers.

"Laugh now," he snarled. She gulped like a fish. He replaced the axe with his foot and swung back again. A smiley dog attacked him, breaking its teeth off against his legs. He didn't notice. The second strike split the witch from shoulder to navel, splashing hot black everywhere. A horrible sound was forced out of her and then she was dead. A howl rose from the dogs and the air was whipped by the force of their wings as they all took off.

"Black blood?" Laurie heard herself ask. She pulled her hands away from the spreading puddle.

"Pumped through a black heart," the Metal Man rasped. If he felt any peace at all at finally having his revenge, it didn't show. She could hear Griffin throwing up somewhere behind her, heard Scarecrow murmur something comforting to him. Metal Man kicked the other half of the whip over to her and pulled off the witch's black mask. Some of her face came with it and underneath it, was a face entirely too familiar. The movement made it loll to look at her and her voice went high and shrill.

"Mom?!?"

Laurie staggered back, her head reeling. Straw-stuffed arms wrapped around her from behind, holding her up. Her vision of it was blocked by a big, tawny-brown body.

"Don't look," Griffin wept, emotional again. "She can make you see things. Just don't look." But Laurie had to. She straightened up and peeked at the body again. It didn't look that much like Sally at all now and she relaxed a little. Even the Metal Man actually looked as worried as his body posture would allow.

"I'm fine," she said, "Let's just take the whip and mask and go."


	9. Chapter 9

The Wizard was exultant to receive both the whip and the news that the witch was dead. His arms shot up in a spray of blue lightning and there was the sound of distant bells ringing. After his former composure, it was a little frightening.

"The witch is dead. This world can be saved now," he said. "Without opposition."

"Said you'd help Laurie," the Scarecrow reminded him.

"He said he'd help all of us," Laurie said. She had been quiet on the way back, so much so that her three companions had taken it in turns to try to cheer her up. Griffin had scooped her up to let her ride on his back, claiming the crescent-shaped scars felt better with something warm against them. Scarecrow had scavenged in an orbit around them as they went, filling his hat with whatever nuts or berries he could find and offering it to her. Even the Metal Man had tried some stupid jokes to jolly her along. "The question is how?"

The Wizard sobered reluctantly. She had the face of a skeptic, was staring him down from her lowly perch.

"It will be difficult," he said. "The whip has been cut and the way is severed."

"Sorry, kid," the Metal Man muttered. She just shook her head.

"You can only leave a world," the Wizard said it slowly as if to make sure she understood. "If there is nothing left of you in it."

"How did I get here then?" she asked. "Are you saying that I don't have any life to go back to?"

"I'm saying that you can only leave here if no one remembers or cares that you were here." He looked meaningfully at the three with her.

"No," Scarecrow said immediately. "Won't lose mind again. Not," he faltered a little. "Now that there's something good in it."

"Ditto," growled the Metal Man, a rattle like the chamber of a revolver spinning coming from inside him.

"You can't make us forget her!" Griffin shouted, stepping forward and spreading his injured wings to block his companions. "Or stop caring about her!"

"So I won't go," Laurie said. She had been toying with that notion for awhile now. Her friends' distress sent panic bubbling up in her chest. "I'll stay. You'll let me stay with you, right?" The Griffin nodded eagerly, still trying to shield her. "I'll stay, and you won't have to forget me."

"All your suffering for nothing," Scarecrow said, apologetically. She hooked her arm through his.

"All yours, you mean." Her fingers stroked over all the tooth marks in his clothes that now had straw poking out. "You would've been happy in your cornfield if I hadn't dragged you into this whole mess."

"Not happy," he whispered. The Metal Man made a disgusted sound, but Laurie hugged the Scarecrow tight.

The Wizard was silent, just blinking at them. Somewhere in this exchange he had grown to giant proportions and still without speaking, one of his huge blue hands came reaching for Laurie.

"Whoa," the Metal Man snapped back into action. "Whoa, whoa! You can't just-" He was knocked aside and the hand keep coming.

"You can't!" Griffin snarled, sounding more like his lion half than the owl. He sprang at the Wizard, claws out. Even without wings, he was a powerful creature and the jump carried him straight at the giant's throat.

"Save her!" he shouted. "Get her out!" The Scarecrow leapt to obey and the Metal Man slid between them and the hand, blocking the way. Griffin sailed straight through the Wizard's body with a startled squeal and crashed into the wall of curtains behind him. He had to grab on to keep from falling with his injured wings, but the drapes hadn't been intended to hold a beast of his size and they tore down, plunking him gracelessly on the floor again. The image of the Wizard flickered and steadied, then went staticky and faded out.

"The hell…?" muttered the Metal Man. A Polonius-esque gasp made Scarecrow spin to squint at another wall of hangings. He pounced, much like the Griffin had, only he grabbed something solid. The metal soldier hurried to help and they dragged a blond man out into the room. He was handsome and dressed in light armor, with weird gauntlets that flickered with the same blue light that the Wizard had.

"Son of a witch," Metal Man laughed. "It's the Wizard's boy toy. When did he hand the reins of his reign over to you, blondie, or does he know you've taken on extra duties?"

"Don't understand," Scarecrow growled. "Not really the Wizard? Sent us on suicide mission for own agenda?" There was the creak of glove leather as his grip tightened and the blond man might've almost winced. "Explain."

"I'm the Wizard's right hand," the man sighed. "I've been carrying out his usual duties since he drifted."

"Drifted where?" Griffin asked.

"See for yourself." The man carefully extracted himself from Scarecrow's grip and motioned for them to follow. He led the way up many stairs to a private chamber with transparent sapphire walls at the top of a tower. In the middle of the room, lost in some meditation, stood the Wizard. Laurie walked right up to him and gave him a cautious poke, which drew a scandalized gasp out of the right hand. The Wizard didn't move or reply, but seemed solid.

"Just checking," she told him. "We get lied to frequently around here."

"Forgive me," he said, wilting a little. "We've had to keep his detachment a secret. He's protected our world since he first manifested here, and if anyone knew that he was no longer watching, there would be a breakdown of law and order. Enemies would attack. It would mean war and devastation! So we made the machine to generate his image and kept up the façade."

"How long has he been this way?" Griffin asked, sniffing what might as well have been a glowing blue statue.

"It happened gradually. But when last year's flood didn't even register with him, we knew we had to step in somehow."

"Tried to send us to our deaths!" Scarecrow was honestly unnerving in his wrath. His painted face trickled into a jack o'lantern rictus of fury.

"You aren't even alive," the right hand said reasonably. "You were perfectly safe." Laurie nearly slapped him.

"He is so alive," she snapped. "Why send us there at all if not to dispose of us?"

"It didn't occur to me that you would actually go," he insisted. "Everyone else sent to deal with the Witch of Western Twilight just discretely left the city and ran away. I assumed you would do the same."

"You can't help us at all can you?" Laurie crossed her arms. "You're just filling in for the boss. That's why no one's gone to help the destroyed city, isn't it? And that didn't happen a year ago. If it came from the Wizard, it really came from you."

"I'm not proud of that," the right hand said. "But now we know what we are capable of without the Wizard, and our enemies know it too. They won't dare attack and risk having power turned toward them."

"You keep saying 'we'," the Metal Man spoke up. "Who else is in on this, cupcake?"

"I include the Wizard, of course." He held up the gauntlets. "The power he gave me duplicates his to the extent that I can carry out his will to the best of my ability."

"That's insane!" Laurie said. "You attacked your own country and send the people who come to you for help on suicide missions!"

"It's worked so far." He had the nerve to smile and shrug. "Peace built on a deception is still peace. "

"A lie told to save your own skin is still a lie," Metal Man snorted.

"What happened to the munchkins isn't peace," Griffin added. "Just terrorism."

"You're as much a monster as she was." Laurie said. She threw down the mask and whip. "No thanks. I'll find my own way." She turned and started the long marble walk back toward the doors.

"I'm afraid you can't do that," the right hand said again. He did sound regretful about it. "I can't let you tell anyone about this and endanger what so much has been sacrificed for."

"Stolen hearts and memories, why not just steal our voices too??" Griffin demanded. "Leave us all mute and flailing while you pretend to be a god!"

"For the greater good," the man said. "I must." Lights flared around his gauntlets and he took a step forward.

"Run!" roared the Metal Man and he charged the right hand with his axe. The gauntlets made a loud, resounding CLICK and the soldier was flung aside like a tin can in a tornado. His body sailed through one of the gemstone windows and Laurie screamed as he fell the long endless way to the city below.

"Fly!" Scarecrow shouted to Griffin. "Get her away!" He threw himself at the right hand, dog-chewed gloves already in fists. There was another CLICK and it was Griffin who screamed this time as Scarecrow was blasted to straw. Laurie's shriek was a wordless cry of horror.

"No!" Griffin wailed, spreading his wings to block her from the next blast. "Laurie, run!" CLICK. And he was torn in half, owl and lion finally separated and thrashing on the floor. Her next scream was cut off as the right hand hit her hard in the stomach. He didn't need magic to kill her, it seemed. All the breath was driven out of her and her head cracked against the floor with enough force to make her vision reel. There was a blast of cold air. She heard Griffin scream again, a name he shouldn't know.

"Rorschach!"


	10. Chapter 10

"Rorschach! Stop! I need your help!"

Griffin's voice sounded off. Laurie's head was spinning with pain. It was like drowning in cold. She couldn't breathe, she couldn't move, and everything hurt. She forced her eyes open and saw a dark shape against swirling white. She saw it hesitate and turn. Something pulled hard at her back and pain made her groan. She heard Griffin, no, Dan, it was Dan, sob again.

"Help me! I can't-! My arm!" He was trying to carry her with one arm and getting tangled in his own cape. Every stagger and tug sent jerks of pain through her. Something hot was leaking in her chest. It felt like she had been hit by a train. The shape at the doorway shifted, torn between two fates, but when Dan called his name again, he hurried back in. She felt arms wrap around her, feeling ten times more solid and smelling ten times worse than the Scarecrow had. The hands wandered more too, and not gently.

"Ahngh," she gasped. "Don't!"

"Concussion, broken ribs, punctured lung," Rorschach's growl said. "Maybe internal damage from the kick."

"Oh no," Dan moaned. "We have to get her to a hospital." Laurie felt Rorschach hesitate, like he would pull away, go back to swatting at black birds. Her head reeled again. She grabbed onto him to keep him close.

"Don't go!" she said. "Don't forget me! I don't want to be like her!" His face swung to peer at her. His expression didn't make any sense now, just random, meaningless splotches. She got a sense of alarm from his posture though.

"It's all right, Laurie," Dan was babbling. He really did sound like Griffin, or Griffin had sounded like him, but minus the animal rumble. There was a metallic echo to it now. "You'll be fine, we'll take care of you, it's going to be fine. Look, put her down here, and do what you can for her, I'll get us out of here."

"Your arm…"

"Once we're up and on autopilot. Take care of her now."

She heard the sound of Archie taking off, felt the lurch in the metal under her and the answering stab of pain that flooded her mouth with the hot taste of copper. Her fingers clenched into Rorschach's arm and he went completely still. When her eyes opened again, she could see him poised warily, as if jerking his arm away would shatter her fingers like glass so he had to wait for her to let go.

She heard heels click on the floor and a cape was wrapped around her, not as warm as wings, but the sense of comfort was the same.

"There's a hospital in the Falkland Islands," Dan said. "We can be there in about an hour and a half." Rorschach said something but it was aimed away from her and she half-listened to them bicker and grumble as Dan's arm was set and wrapped. The nightmare of seeing them both destroyed began to fade and memories from before she woken up in the road were beginning to resurface.

Her father was dead. The world had been attacked. She had been attacked. She had left Jon. Jon had left her. Flashes of blue, taking things apart.

"I'm home?" she realized slowly.

"No place like it," came the dry grumble and she would've laughed if it hadn't hurt so bad.


End file.
